2024 Election thread
Comments
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That was more down to me than the government 😉
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Seem to remember you're a teacher so can understand why you're keen 😉
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
It'll be a different form of leftiebollox from previous Labour administrations, sure. But leftiebollox it will be.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
do feel free to remind us all of the parts which held you back - especially in comparison to the government policy decisions 2010-2024
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I remember 97-10 being pretty reasonable. A really good environment for the construction industry. 2009 was a bit quiet, but things bounced back pretty quickly.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
I said it was down to me. What part of that don't you understand?
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Also ìt might be a bit naive to think that a Starmer administration will be just like the Blair administration, which many lefties deride as being 'Tories with a red rosette'.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Pretty well established that Labour's big boost in education spending has completely transformed secondary schools, especially in London. Weird that you would think that a negative.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
You'd need to demonstrate that to me as I wasn't aware of it to be able to agree or disagree.
I figured you'd be looking forward to your big pay day once those generous Labour politicians get in the door - provided that you're ahead of all the other public sector workers, unions, quangos etc in the queue.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Here you go.
The London Challenge was an investment programme, largely for London secondary schools which ran from 2003 to 2011, and at its peak it had a budget of £40 million a year. At the time the project began, London was identified as having a large number of underperforming secondary schools.
The Institute for Government found that: “The performance of London schools over the decade after London Challenge began improved dramatically, with Key Stage 4 results moving from among the worst in the country to the best during the period.
“By 2010, Ofsted rated 30% of London schools as ‘outstanding’ compared to 17.5% nationally, and very few London secondaries fell into the bottom Ofsted categories.”
You figured incorrectly. We don't do public projects. Private clients only.
The regulatory framework was much, much less onerous under Labour: that's the difference.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Well surely a govt that gets out of your way to do well is ideal?
This government’s policies have directly affected my work for the worse. We’re losing business to our European rivals because of Brexit etc
You seem to imagine the Tories like they were 40 years ago. They are not a low tax low regulation party. They are a high tax high regulation party.
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Maybe it is a hobby horse of mine, but a lot of the growth under the Blair years wasn't sustainable which led to the GFC.
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I was asking Secret Squirrel. Is there some sort of centre leftie tag team going here?
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
I don't really believe governments create growth. They can encourage or hinder it a bit at most. They can decide what to do with a portion of the proceeds, which may feed back positively or negatively but again it's incremental.
People took progressively greater financial risks because they (wrongly) felt safe to do so. That has more to do with human nature than which colour rosette the government wears.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
You weren't, you quoted RJS when you asked the question.
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I replied to your reply to my post. It's a discussion forum - we don't get to choose who replies to what.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Well spotted by another member of the tag team 😉
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
I’m not a teacher.
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Ah, OK. Sure I'd read it in a post of yours somewhere. Must still be suffering from post holiday mental trauma.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]1 -
I didn't say Labour caused the growth. I said there was unsustainable growth, so those rosy years should be viewed in the context of what came later. I think the period would also have been relatively rosy under a Tory government and also would have culminated in the GFC.
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Labour were also fortunate to inherit an economy in a good state from the Tories when they came to power in '97.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Still don't understand how a discussion forum works I see
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Thanks for your value added contribution, as ever.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Would generally agree. It's the bits that are within the government's control that should be judged.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Indeed, but that wasn't happening and, in any case, it is hard to see in isolation. Would Labour have spent so much on schools if the economy wasn't so good? It's probably true that they would have spent more than the Tories, but then I wouldn't have expected Labour to be the government that introduced tuition fees and started to lock people up for 30 days without trial (plus all the other stuff).
I don't agree with Stevo_666's politics, but it's clear that the Tories are more likely to give him what he wants (wealth protection, lower taxes relative to Labour etc.) If that is not the case, then all the people who vote Labour for more social justice are being misled.
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I am unconvinced on the 'lower taxes relative to Labour'. Once upon a time, but no longer.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
I agree to an extent. In the early days that certainly had things going their way outside their control. I think they spent wisely but the gold sell off was stupid and I'm not convinced the way they did PFI was the best solution (I'm pretty sure I remember you have strong views on that but can't remember which way). I don't recall tax rates being particularly high but my salary more than doubled (probably trebled) over the period so that would have hidden the worst of it. I certainly can't remember their financial policies doing anything to suggest Stevo's dire warnings of 'if you think it's bad now wait until you see what it's like under Labour' which seems to be entirely related to their ill-fated late 70s antics. To be honest, I can't really think of anything Labour did that affected me massively either way unlike the Tories since 2015 (actually the coalition were bad for me personally with the HICBC).
My issue now isn't so much with specific policies or tax rates as the total incompetence that has been shown in the last 9 years which feels like it must be holding back growth. Everything feels that bit worse than it was, paying more and getting less. Even allowing that whilst the Blair Government was a reasonably 'lucky' Government the current one has had more than its fair share of 'bad luck' it really is hard to see how any other Government could make things worse. I'm still struggling with the idea of voting Labour but short of not voting I'm not sure what the option is although it is pretty irrelevant in these parts.
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The argument that Labour might be more competent seems fine. I just doubt the very wealthy will pay less tax.
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We're all going to be paying more tax for the foreseeable.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0
